MUNCIE, Ind. — An initial examination of human remains found Monday in a rural area of Delaware County produced few answers, but did establish a possible time frame for how long the body was waiting to be found.

"We still don't know a lot more than when we started," Delaware County Coroner Scott Hahn told The Star Press Wednesday afternoon, following completion of a forensic examination in the morgue at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital.

Wednesday's examination indicated the remains were that of an adult and had been on a gravel bed along railroad tracks near County Road 700-West and 300-South for several weeks.

"We think at least two months in that same spot," Hahn said.

Still to be determined are the gender of the person whose skeletal remains were found, as well as the person's identity.

Positive identification might not come until an out-of-state lab can try to determine and match DNA from some of the bones found, Hahn said.

"It will be months," the coroner said.

Police investigators will go back to the scene, between Yorktown and Daleville near Tri-County Builders Supply, on Thursday to look for bones that were separated from the remains. Bones missing include half of the pelvis and several metacarpal bones from the hand.

Hahn said there had been some "animal movement" of the body's lower extremities in the weeks or months the remains were exposed. The coroner said "very little" soft tissue remained.

Hahn said that Stephen Nawrocki, a forensic anthropologist from the University of Indianapolis, had not yet examined the remains. But Jolene Clouse, a forensic pathologist and professor of pathology at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, had conducted Wednesday's forensic exam. Also participating in the exam were Hahn, Delaware County police investigator Jeff Stanley and a team of archaeologists from Ball State University including Kevin Nolan.

The skeletal remains were assembled in a partial anatomical position during Wednesday's exam, Hahn said. The recovery of missing bones will be done "to complete the case," he added.

The remains were spotted Monday by a railroad maintenance crew, Hahn and Sheriff Ray Dudley said. Workers had reportedly been in the area recently but had not spotted anything. On Monday, they contacted county police after finding the skeletal remains.

Since The Star Press reported on the discovery of the remains in an online story Monday, five people have contacted the newspaper to raise awareness of missing persons. Some of them, and possibly others, have also contacted authorities.

Among those missing persons cited to The Star Press this week was Mark I. Trent, a 55-year-old Muncie man missing since late February or early March. County police in April asked for the public's help in finding Trent.